VANCOUVER — The roof remained closed at BC Place for Sunday’s Heritage Classic and maybe that’s a good thing because it seems the sky is falling on the Vancouver Canucks.

Even when good things happen, they eventually go bad for the Canucks these days. Vancouver grabbed a quick 2-0 lead Sunday, exciting a sold-out crowd of 54,194, but then wilted and fell 4-2 to the Ottawa Senators.

Vancouver has now lost nine of its last 10 games and it’s difficult to imagine this team is going to be able to muster the kind of run that will be necessary to grab a Western Conference playoff spot.

The fact the Canucks may have to do it without winger Daniel Sedin doesn’t figure to make it any easier.

Sedin left the game five minutes into the second period after being checked into the end boards by Ottawa defenceman Marc Methot. His left leg appeared to bend awkwardly and Daniel immediately grabbed his hamstring area. He needed assistance as he limped to the dressing room and did not return.

Sunday’s game completed a three-game post-Olympic break homestand for the Canucks, who collected three of a possible six points. But .500 hockey simply isn’t going to be good enough down the stretch.

Coach John Tortorella, who raised more than a few eyebrows with his decision to start Eddie Lack and not Roberto Luongo in goal, said the team must keep believing in itself.

“Because that is the only thing you can do as a group right now,” he said. “From Mike Gillis right on down through our team, we need to keep believing as an organization . . . I’m not down. Sure, you’d like to win a game and get five out of six before you go on the road, but it changes quickly.

“We are still in the middle of it. I know everybody talks about it -- you need to do this, that, the other thing to get in -- (but) there are four other teams that need to do the same thing. We are going to take each day, I am not going to get down on this club and we are going to keep working and try to find a way to scratch out wins.”

Tortorella spent much of his post-game session with the media defending his decision to start Lack ahead of Luongo, who hasn’t played since returning from the Olympics.

“I have to make decisions not on consensus, but on what I think is best for that team,” Tortorella said. “Louie is pissed, he is not happy. He is proud. I get that. I like the guy. I think he has been terrific for us this year, but this is part of the business. I know it is a very sensitive thing here because of what happened last year and I tell you I weighed that. I did a lot of thinking about that. I have to make decisions right now which I think is going to give our team the best chance to win.”

The Canucks may have needed Cyclone Taylor to win Sunday’s game, which was billed as a celebration of sorts of the 1915 Stanley Cup final between Taylor’s Vancouver Millionaires and the Ottawa Senators.

The Canucks just can’t seem to score enough goals to win, although they did get two before the game was 12 minutes old. A power-play goal by Jason Garrison and an unassisted goal from Zack Kassian gave the Canucks that early lead.

It didn’t last long. Clarke MacArthur got credit for Ottawa’s first goal at 15:15 of the first. He got a piece of a shot by Erik Condra and the puck then struck the right glove of Vancouver defenceman Kevin Bieksa and went past Lack. Erik Karlsson’s power-play goal at 17:03 tied the game. He beat Lack from long range with a wrist shot the Vancouver goalie probably should have had.

Lack did not look good on Cody Ceci’s game-winner at 10:11 of the second. He scored off the rush, taking a pass from Jason Spezza and beating Lack far side from the right faceoff circle. Colin Greening iced the game with an empty-netter at 18:27 of the third period.

“We are taking pride in playing well defensively and the last two games we haven’t given up a whole lot of chances,” said Vancouver captain Henrik Sedin. “But now we get a two-goal lead and it seemed like we started to relax a little bit and I think we started playing their kind of game a little bit too much. There seemed to be a lot of 3-on-2s and 2-on-1s out there, a lot of chances. We started making mistakes and they made the plays when they got their chances.

“This is a game we should have won. Getting a two-goal lead in this league, we know how tough it is to come back from those. We got that lead today, played great the first 10 minuets and let it slip.”

“We were outplayed for the middle part of that game,” added Tortorella. “From the seven- or eight-minute mark of the first period I thought we stopped winning battles right on through to the end of the second. We didn’t have puck control.”

The Canucks now head out on the road for two virtual mist-win games in Phoenix on Tuesday and Dallas in Thursday.

“Obviously, this one stings,” Kassian said. “The thing is we play Tuesday and we need a W. We need to move forward.”

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